青霉素及β-内酰胺类抗生素自上世纪40年代应用于临床以来,对医学的深远影响难以形容。这类抗生素通过干扰细菌保护性细胞壁成份的合成而起作用;它们对多种多样感染的冲击简直是一个奇迹。来自于美国约翰斯霍普金斯大学神经学教授Rothstein等最近在《自然》杂志上报道说,上世纪传下来的这一奇特药物很可能还有许多未曾开发出的治疗潜力。 The penicillins and β-lactam antibiotics have had a profound impact on medicine since they were introduced to the clinic in the 1940s. Such antibiotics work by interfering with the synthesis of bacterial protective cell wall components; their impact on a wide variety of infections is simply a miracle. Rothstein, a professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins University in the United States, recently reported in Nature that the strange drug handed down from the last century is likely to have many untapped therapeutic potential.